In September of 2017, Tradeweb executed the first electronic cleared inflation swap on its European interest rate swaps platform in advance of the MiFID II rules set to take effect in January 2018.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tradeweb.com/News/News-Releases/First-Cleared-RFQ-Inflation-Swap-Trade-Executed-on-Tradeweb/|name=First Cleared RFQ Inflation Swap Trade Executed on Tradeweb|org=Tradeweb|date=February 7, 2018}}</ref>

In September of 2017, Tradeweb executed the first electronic cleared inflation swap on its European interest rate swaps platform in advance of the MiFID II rules set to take effect in January 2018.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tradeweb.com/News/News-Releases/First-Cleared-RFQ-Inflation-Swap-Trade-Executed-on-Tradeweb/|name=First Cleared RFQ Inflation Swap Trade Executed on Tradeweb|org=Tradeweb|date=February 7, 2018}}</ref>

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In May 2018 Tradeweb said it was creating a venture with Plato, a not-for-profit consortium of more than 20 fund managers and banks, that will launch a major push in European share trading. Tradeweb plans to roll out its system, where investors can request electronic quotes from brokers, to trade large blocks of shares in equities. The Plato consortium includes Axa Investment Managers, BlackRock, Fidelity International, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Norwegian sovereign wealth fund Norges Bank Investment Management.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://goo.gl/dx2GeG|name=Tradeweb plans push into European share trading|org=The Financial Times|date=May 17, 2018}}</ref>

Tradeweb Markets, headquartered in New York, is an electronic market-maker that serves international securities dealers and institutional investors, with a focus on the fixed income and derivatives markets. The company has three separate trading divisions: Tradeweb Institutional (client-to-dealer); Dealerweb (inter-dealer); and Tradeweb Direct (odd lot trading for the financial advisory community). Tradeweb also provides a range of market data and post-trade processing services. It is majority-owned by Thomson Reuters and eleven leading dealers. [1]

Tradeweb Retail was established in 2006 as the firm entered the retail fixed income marketplace through the acquisition of LeverTrade, a provider of web-based fixed income management systems for the retail marketplace.[3]

History

Tradeweb was founded in 1998, focusing on a multi-dealer online marketplace for U.S. Treasuries. By 2000, the firm's volume surpassed US$1 trillion annually.

In 2004, Thomson Reuters acquired a majority stake in Tradeweb for $535 million and in 2008 launched a new inter-dealer trading platform called Dealerweb which provides a range of voice, electronic, and hybrid markets. [4] Dealerweb expanded rapidly, and in 2011 the business acquired the brokerage assets of Rafferty Capital Markets. Dealerweb also operates a municipal bonds brokerage business through J.J. Kenny Drake, acquired as part of the RaffCap transaction.[5]

Tradeweb launched a new equity derivatives platform in Europe in September of 2010 to facilitate the trading of large blocks of single-name and index options for institutional customers by allowing them to compare quotes from brokers online. Previously, such trades in Europe were done by voice via trading desks.[8]

The company acquired the brokerage assets of Rafferty Capital Markets and launched a fully integrated hybrid voice/electronic trading solution for off-the-run U.S. Treasuries in 2011. The deal expanded Dealerweb with brokerage desks for U.S. Treasuries, U.S. Agencies, mortgages, repo, taxable municipal bonds and the J.J. Kenny Drake tax-exempt municipal bond brokerage group.

The company introduced its fourth derivatives marketplace, a multi-dealer foreign exchange options platform, in February 2012. [9] The platform was acquired by Thomson Reuters in 2013. [10]

In October of 2012, Tradeweb launched a multi-dealer-to-customer market for European-listed ETFs to improve access to liquidity for institutional buy-side clients.[11]

Tradeweb Markets' fixed-income trading platform launched a service in June of 2013 allowing customers to speed up approvals of derivatives transactions before they are executed and pushed to central clearinghouses. The service electronically messages the three parties: the customer, executing broker and the clearing broker, all of whom must be involved in swaps clearing under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act. [12] For a summary of each of the 16 titles of the Dodd-Frank Act, visit the Dodd-Frank page on MarketsReformWiki.

Both of Tradeweb's swap execution facilities went live on October 2, 2013, with active trading from U.S. and European-based market participants. [15]

Also in 2013, Tradeweb, through Dealerweb's European and interdealer trading division, launched an interdealer iTraxx credit default swap index platform.[16] In addition, Tradeweb's institutional business completed the first electronic buy-side pre-trade credit check for swaps trading in the U.S. [17]

Tradeweb acquired BondDesk Group LLC, a firm catering to the retail fixed income marketplace, on November 1, 2013, and rebranded its combined retail fixed income division as Tradeweb Direct.[18][19]

In May 2014, Tradeweb entered into an alliance with BlackRock focused on boosting trading, liquidity and risk management in the interest rate and derivatives markets for institutional investors. The alliance integrated the Tradeweb marketplace with BlackRock's Aladdin platform.

Tradeweb launched active U.S. Treasury bond trading on its Dealerweb platform in June 2014.

The firm introduced axe functionality to its platform in Europe in March 2015, to improve buy-side discovery of liquidity for European government and corporate bonds. Tradeweb axes provide pre-trade information in an environment of constrained dealer balance sheets and reduced market liquidity.

In July 2015, Tradeweb was awarded two contracts to supply its electronic trading platform to the European Central Bank. The contracts cover trading of euro-denominated European government bonds, European credit, supranationals and covered bonds, along with U.S. Treasuries, Japanese government bonds, U.S. dollar supranationals and U.S. dollar-and yen-denominated interest rate swaps.

To complement its market for European ETS, Tradeweb launched an OTC marketplace for U.S.-listed ETFs in February 2016, aimed at institutional investors. [20]

In October 2016, Tradeweb, along with FTSE Russell, was named a provider of Gilt and Treasury Bill end-of-day reference pricing by the U.K. Treasury.[21]. The same month, the firm became one of four electronic trading platforms to launch the Electronic Debt Markets Association Europe (EDMA Europe), which was formed to develop and promote collective member views on regulatory developments affecting electronic fixed income trading venues in Europe.[22]

Tradeweb acquired CodeStreet LLC, a data-driven trade identification and workflow management software development company, in March of 2016.[23]

On May 1, 2017, Tradeweb Markets announced the launch of all-to-all trading on its U.S. institutional credit platform, following a beta trial with more than 140 active buy- and sell-side firms.[24]

In September of 2017, Tradeweb executed the first electronic cleared inflation swap on its European interest rate swaps platform in advance of the MiFID II rules set to take effect in January 2018.[25]

In May 2018 Tradeweb said it was creating a venture with Plato, a not-for-profit consortium of more than 20 fund managers and banks, that will launch a major push in European share trading. Tradeweb plans to roll out its system, where investors can request electronic quotes from brokers, to trade large blocks of shares in equities. The Plato consortium includes Axa Investment Managers, BlackRock, Fidelity International, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Norwegian sovereign wealth fund Norges Bank Investment Management.[26]